Legendary NASCAR Crew Chief Chad Knaus used all the experience he has to help William Byron seal his place in the playoffs in style. The No. 24 team of Hendrick Motorsports won the race at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday for Byron’s first career Cup Series win. They took the final playoff spot, at the expense of Chad Knaus’ former teammate Jimmie Johnson.

Chad Knaus revealed what motivated him to do well with Byron this season. Especially when so much was at stake at Daytona. Knaus and Johnson’s records as a team are unmatched. All of Johnson’s seven Cup Series titles came with Knaus. They also have 81 race wins together.

Why Chad Knaus wants to win with a driver other than Jimmie Johnson

Knaus expressed that he has all the respect for Jimmie Johnson, but he wanted to get to victory lane with another driver as well to show what he is made of. “It’s really big obviously. One thing to be selfish from my standpoint is, that I wanted to get to victory lane as Crew Chief without Jimmie Johnson on top of the door,” Knaus said after his and Byron’s first win together.

“Nothing against Jimmie or any of that, but just to do it. To see if I can accomplish it. We’ve come close, we’ve had some really solid runs with the 24 car. Not as many this year as we’d like to have had. But to be able to do this really means a lot,” Knaus added.

The road ahead as playoffs beckon

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He also expressed what it means to be in the playoffs and the road ahead as the season reaches its business end. “To be able to bring this team to the playoffs again. I think that last year in the playoffs we performed pretty well,” Knaus said.

“I’m really excited about the playoffs this year. I think we have some race tracks coming up that will run competitive and I’m excited about that. We’ll see what goes,” Knaus added.

In last year’s playoffs, Byron finished sixth in the Round of 16 race at Charlotte to advance to the Round of 12. He was eliminated there.